Please join Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice for the next OCCIAR webinar

On Thursday, May 24^th 2012 from 1-2pm EDT, Ewa Jackson, Manager of ICLEI Canada, will be giving a webinar on “So Now What? An Introduction to Communicating Climate Change“. This webinar will serve as a crash-course on communicating climate change and translating communication into action. After an introduction into the basics of communications, the bulk of the presentation will focus on answering the five big questions: Who? What? Why? When? and How?. Join this webinar to learn more about the importance of creating locally tailored messages and how communities large and small have done this successfully!

Joining the webinar is easy! Simply call 1-647-426-3315 or toll free 1-866-387-4893, dial participant code 920492 and log in (as a guest) at http://mirarco.acrobat.com/climatechange. *If you plan to attend, please RSVP to amorand@mirarco.org.

Can you help answer the latest ‘Call for Knowledge’?

Prativa Pradhan needs your help: She is curious to know if any other provincial governments have guides on how to include climate change into Environmental Impact Assessments.  This could include reports, guides, regulations etc.  Nova Scotia published one such report, found here. If you can help Prativa with her call for knowledge, please click here.

There is a new addition to the CoP library!

Adapting to Climate Change: A Business Approach (2008) – This paper outlines a sensible business approach to analyzing and adapting to the physical risks of climate change. It focuses on a critical first step in assessing these climate impacts: understanding the potential risks to business and the importance of taking action to mitigate those risks.

Mark your calendars!

European Climate Change Adaptation Conference: Integrating Climate into Action (March 18-20, 2013) – This conference will bring together scientists and practitioners working on adaptation to the impacts of climate change. The conference will create a European forum bringing together world-class science, with the aim of fostering a creative dialogue with climate adaptation policy makers and practitioners. The theme of the conference is integrating climate into action.

Craving some adaptation reading material? Check you this recently posted news article:

Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation announces $7 million in funding for adaptation projects in Alberta

Forum for Leadership On Water (FLOW) has released a special edition of the FLOW Monitor. It looks back at the progress made towards national freshwater protection since the publication of our 2007 document, Changing the Flow: A Blueprint for Federal Action on Freshwater (www.changingtheflow.ca). The articles, organized according to the seven priority areas identified in Changing the Flow, assess the level of action taken over the past five years to protect water. While the trend towards a diminishing role for the federal government is neither surprising nor new, we seek to stimulate thinking about where to go from here in this newsletter.

Read the release online.

Download the full report.

Tuesday, May 29th 2012
12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET (9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. PT)

This is the fifth, and final, webinar in the POLIS Water Sustainability Project’s 2011/2012 Creating a Blue Dialogue webinar series. Information on next year’s series will be available in early fall 2012.

Guest Speakers

Jesse Baltutis
Water Policy & Governance Research Assistant, POLIS Water Sustainability Project
Co-Author of Cross-Canada Checkup: A Canadian Perspective on Our Water Future

Bob Sandford
Chair, Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade
Co-Author of Cross-Canada Checkup: A Canadian Perspective on Our Water Future

**SPACE IS LIMITED**
To register email Laura Brandes at communications@polisproject.org

It occurred to me not that long ago, that I was no longer a “fence-sitter”. I had the awareness that my lifestyle was out of balance. I had finished university, was earning a reasonable wage and having fun with my financial freedom, however, deep down, I knew I was living a life that was far beyond what I wanted to be sustaining. Most of all, I was doing very little to change it.

Over the years, I have become informed on the importance of environmental awareness & simplifying life. While I could conceive there was meaning within the phrase “less is more”, there was far more talk than action in my life. In an effort to “save time”, I bought a car. No longer was I walking through vibrant East Vancouver or having conversations with my neighbours. I had become committed to a vehicle-based lifestyle and in the process I ended up losing the connection with something I cared deeply about: my community.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know how lost I was until I experienced true loss. In a short period of time, I suffered a serious injury leaving me in chronic pain and on disability alongside the tragic passing of a longtime friend. The grieving process was difficult but it provided me with some necessary perspective. With time, my body and heart began to heal but my life had become very different. I started asking myself what did I really want and what did it look like? The soul-searching process made it clear that things needed to change!

Once I had made the leap off the “fence”, it didn’t take long for me to see the benefits. Many of the changes I have made have been simple but significant. Taking transit saves me money and allows me to reconnect with my community. Volunteering with local environmental and labour organizations allows me to support them in amidst these challenging times. My household is currently working on our garden and the local farmer’s market will be starting up soon creating another option to reduce my footprint and support a great community hub. Other changes have been more substantial such as starting graduate school part-time and finding a new work position, which is jumpstarting a career transformation. My experiences have informed me that becoming more environmentally responsible can save money and is fulfilling by strengthening the bonds with my community.

Spring is an empowering time and the new ideas are blossoming. Future goals include having a more success in my garden, becoming a cycling commuter and building the skills necessary to mentor youth interested in environmental careers.  While sadly for me, it required a shocking reality check to “take the plunge”, I have come to realize the value in slowing down and spending time doing what you love.

Heather is working on her MA thesis, focusing on leadership and mentorship of young professionals in Canadian water organizations.

*Send us your adaptation stories to be considered for the ACT series about people who are Taking The Plunge. Please include your complete name and a one-line bio with your story. One page is the best maximum length.

My house was uninsulated and had oil heat, I drove a gasoline powered vehicle, and I was flitting all over the globe on exotic vacations. At the same time, I claimed to be concerned about the environment and climate change. Yes, there was something wrong with this picture.

Inspiration to change my ways finally came a few years back, when I attended the 2009 Reinventing Fire Symposium of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in San Francisco. There I met some of today’s most inspirational thought leaders in the clean energy and environmental movement, including Amory Lovins and Paul Hawken. From them I learned about the “negawatt”, which is the energy you don’t use by taking measures to use energy more efficiently, how the electric car really is a viable alternative to a gasoline-powered one, how free-market pricing does not account for harm done to the environment or to human health, and how stewardship of the environment and capitalism are not necessarily incompatible.

Newly inspired to make negawatts, I insulated my house and installed Krypton triple-pane windows. I felt I was on the right track; I would use less heating oil. But then came a heating oil bill for $800. Despite cutting oil use, my heating costs were rising. To make matters worse, I learned from doing some research on the Internet that my oil furnace produced an astounding 16,000 pounds of carbon emissions annually. I began to look at my options.

Ultimately I was taken in by geothermal; it was everything I wanted – no carbon emissions, immune to the price of oil – but there was the initial cost challenge. It would require drilling three 200-foot holes for the pipes in addition to the new furnace, and it had a total price tag that was more than double that of simply converting to gas. “It just doesn’t pencil”, my best friend advised. “Just get gas. It’s cheap”, my dad weighed in. But using my own special calculus, geothermal did pencil, hands-down. I figured in the peace-of-mind value of having much more certainty in my future heating costs and the psychic benefit of knowing that my heating solution produces minimal carbon emissions.

With the success of the geothermal project, I am now even more inspired to further reduce my impact on the earth. I’ve committed to slowing down on the globetrotting, and to buying carbon offsets when I do, saving around 4,000 pounds of carbon emissions per year. In 2013 I plan to switch to an electric car, shaving off another 6,000 pounds annually. (I’ve settled on the sleek Tesla Model S Sport Sedan.) After that I’d like to tackle rainwater harvesting and solar power. A much prettier picture is coming into view.

Camille Minogue is an enthusiastic advocate for the environment. She currently enjoys an empty nest with her husband, Dan, and is the chief actuary for ICBC.

*Send us your adaptation stories to be considered for the ACT series about people who are Taking The Plunge. Please include your complete name and a one-line bio with your story. One page is the best maximum length.

But once in a while, it all comes together, and people feel inspired to take the plunge by making significant and satisfying changes to incorporate adaptation into their lifestyle.

ACT wants to hear from people who have been inspired to do just that – ACT!  What changed your mind? Was there a key tipping point? A government incentive? A family reason?

Send us your adaptation stories to be selected for the ACT blog series about people who are Taking The Plunge!  You never know – your story could be the one that inspires someone else to ACT.

Please include your complete name and a one-line bio with your story. One page is the best maximum length.

This two-day workshop is for Local Government Staff and elected officials, especially operations & public works managers, planners & engineers

Register NOW to reserve your place!
Download a copy of the draft agenda (PDF).

The workshop will be delivered by Engineers Canada, hosted by the City of Castlegar, and supported by CBT’s Communities Adapting to Climate Change Initiative.

The Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA) is a global initiative which aims to provide direction and coherence at the international level for research on vulnerability, impacts and adaptation. They have announced a compelling roster of events thorough 2012. Further details can be found on the PROVIA website.

18 March – 20 March 2013
European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2013
Venue: University of Hamburg, Germany
The main theme of the conference is integrating climate into action.
Topics:

• climate vulnerability assessment
• risk assessment
• economics of adaptation
• decision-making under uncertainty
• governance of adaptation
• adaptation strategies and planning
• mainstreaming climate adaptation
• adaptation cases studies: organisational, sectoral and regional
• monitoring and measuring adaptation
• impact and effectiveness studies
• role of tools and knowledge in adaptation
• communicating impacts, vulnerability and adaptation

29 August – 31 August 2012
Second Nordic International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation
The Second Nordic International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation: “Adaptation Research Meets Adaptation Decision-Making” will be held in Helsinki, Finland on 29-31 August 2012. This is jointly organised by NORDCLAD-Net (NORDic CLimate change ADaptation research Network) and NONAM (Nordic Network on Adaptive Management in relation to climate change), as part of the NordForsk TFI Network initiative on Effect Studies and Adaptation to Climate Change.

A Call for Abstracts (deadline 9 March 2012) and Registration details can be found at the Conference website.

29 May – 31 May 2012
Second International Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2012
Caption: Co-hosted and convened by the University of Arizona in the southwestern United States and by the UNEP-led Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA), the conference focuses on adaptation to climate variability and change. The conference will bring together researchers, policy makers, and practitioners from developed and developing countries to share insights into the challenges and opportunities that adaptation presents. It will showcase cutting-edge research from around the world, focusing on themes of equity and risk, learning, capacity building, methodology, and adaptation finance and investment. It will explore practical adaptation policies and approaches, and share strategies for decision making from the international to the local scale. [download Conference Announcement]

16-20 April 2012
IHDP Earth System Governance Conference  

27-31 August 2012
Second Nordic Conference on Climate Change Adaptation

What: Networking Forum
Title: Community Energy Development – The Role of Small-Scale Energy Systems in Achieving a Clean Energy Future (PDF poster)
When: Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
Time: Registration 5:30 pm, event begins 6:00 pm
Where: Harbour Centre, Simon Fraser University, Room 1400-1420, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

Guest Moderator:

• Shaun Greffard, General Manager of Investment and Intergovernmental Relations, City of Surrey

Guest Panellists:

• Robyn Wark, Sustainable Communities Group Team Lead, BC Hydro
• Sandy Ferguson, Director of Marketing, BC Bioenergy Network
• Kristen Mucha, Sr. Manager, Commercial & Industrial Energy Solutions, Fortis BC
• Anna Mathewson, Manager of Sustainability, City of Surrey

GreenTech Exchange is an industry forum with an online portal plus networking events for accelerating clean technology innovation and deploying clean energy solutions in a regional Cleantech cluster. Their goal is to engage investors, professionals, government and agencies with entrepreneurs, emerging companies and commercial enterprises to empower the Cleantech ecosystem.

Since 1988, the NRT has been Canada’s leader in fostering a stronger relationship between the environment and the economy. Its recent works are in areas as diverse as Climate Change Prosperity, Water Sustainability, Life-Cycle approaches to Sustainable Development, and Biodiversity.

Despite the pro-active work of the NRT since 1988, the federal government recently announced in its Budget that the NRT will be eliminated as of March 31, 2013. Notwithstanding this news, the NRT continues to release groundbreaking reports that outline the importance of better addressing climate change in Canada, among other topics.

Here is a snippet of its recent report Facing the Elements: Building Business Resilience in a Changing Climate:

“Climate change means business. And businesses are already on the frontline of climate change. The effects of more volatile weather and gradual changes in climate conditions will touch all facets of Canadian business in the decades to come. Despite growing awareness of the risks and opportunities that changing climate presents, few firms are adjusting business strategies and practices to adapt to this inevitable reality. Canada’s future economic prosperity relies on the continued resilience of Canadian business in a changing climate. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRT) has spent more than a year considering how we can act and adapt – business and government together – to prosper through climate change”

As written by NRT President and CEO, David McLaughlin, “Climate change impacts are inevitable. Planning for those impacts makes good business and government sense. Starting now will save time and money later. It’s time to face the elements and withstand them. We hope our work will start real conversations in Canada that are long overdue”.

The three-series report consists of an Advisory Report to government and business, a Business Primer targeted toward the business community, and a Case Studies report which is a collection of company case studies presenting “successes, challenges, and lessons from thirteen Canadian and international pacesetters who are already adapting to climate change”.

ACT recognizes the indispensable role of the business community in helping Canada transition into a more climate resilient society. To achieve this, however, is going to require clear thinking about how adapting to climate change makes ‘business sense’ for the betterment of all Canadians. As argued in the NRT report, the capacity and actions by businesses to adapt to the impacts of changing climate conditions – both average and extreme – will shape Canada’s future economic prosperity.

The business community has systemic barriers to adaptation such as a focus on quarterly performance, which weakens incentives to plan ahead and invest in long-term measures. The report suggests these challenges can be overcome with sensible planning and clear thinking. The report places a strong emphasis on building risk management frameworks within the business community. Risk management, can, inter alia, help businesses assess the costs and benefits of acting now as opposed to in the future.

The PDF Advisory Report is available online.

Written by ACT researcher Timothy Shah

What is troubling is that the western part of Antarctica is losing 23 feet of its floating ice sheet each year – a phenomenon that has long puzzled scientists. Many scientists believed warmer air itself was the principal cause of melting ice sheets. The study explains that climate change has had an indirect role here as melting ice sheets are associated with “warm ocean currents thawing the underbelly of the floating extensions of ice sheets and warm air melting them from above”.

The study’s lead, author Hamish Pritchard of the British Antarctic Survey, explains that “we can lose an awful lot of ice to the sea without ever having summers warm enough to make the snow on top of the glaciers melt. The oceans can do all the work from below.” Dr. Pritchard further explains that Antarctic winds are changing because of changes in climate, which has, among other things, affected the strength and direction of ocean currents. “These studies and our new results suggest Antarctica’s glaciers are responding rapidly to a changing climate.”

In summary, the ice sheets are highly sensitive to relatively subtle changes in climate through the effects of the wind. Changes in wind currents have pushed warmer water closer to and beneath the floating ice shelves.

This animated video shows the circulation of ocean currents around the Western Antarctic ice shelves.

The study has direct relevance to ACT. As a result of warm summer winds directly melting the snow on the ice shelf surfaces, snow and ice on land glaciers will slide down to the floating shelves and eventually into the sea, causing sea-level rise. The research is timely and provides further evidence to decision-makers about the need to actively prepare for sea-level rise.   

The authors explain that if the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt – an event that would occur over many years – scientists have estimated it would lift global sea levels by about 16 feet.

The ACT Sea Level Rise session is exploring precedents from other countries and Canadian municipalities in order to develop recommendations for strategic infrastructure planning, generating an overview of what we do and don’t know, and policy options for the path ahead.

Related articles:

• Antarctica Ice Melting Caused By Warm Water From Below, Study Claims, The Huffington Post
• Nature: Antarctica Is Melting From Below, Which ‘May Already Have Triggered A Period of Unstable Glacier Retreat’, Think Progress

Written by ACT researcher Timothy Shah

When: 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Where: Room A110, Social Sciences & Mathematics Bldg., University of Victoria

Live webcast: pics.uvic.ca/broadcast.php

Canada’s natural resources, ecosystems and wildlife are indispensable to the sustainability of our planet and economy. Despite this, both the public and private sectors do not adequately consider the environmental consequences of production and consumption when calculating their bottom line. There is a growing need for full-cost pricing, a system that adjusts market prices to reflect not only the direct costs of goods and services, but also their impact on our country’s natural capital. Dr. Olewiler argues that the onus is on the federal government to create the conditions for full-cost pricing to succeed.

This seminar is based on a recent paper published through the University of Calgary School of Public Policy available at http://policyschool.ucalgary.ca/?q=content/smart-environmental-policy-full-cost-pricing

Nancy Olewiler is the Director of the School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University. Her areas of research include natural resource and environmental economics and policy. She has published extensively, written two widely used textbooks (The Economics of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Economics), and produced numerous reports for the Canadian federal and provincial governments, including studies on energy and climate policy, natural capital, and federal business tax policy. Nancy is the Chair of the TransLink Board of Directors, and has previously served on the boards of BC Hydro and several of its subsidiaries. She is also a member of advisory committees for Statistics Canada, WWF-Canada, Sustainable Prosperity and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.  (PDF flyer)

The Climate Change Adaptation Community of Practice (CoP) is facilitated and maintained by the the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources (OCCIAR). New resources have been added to their rich library recently, please check them out -

Coastal Climate Change Risk – Legal and Policy Responses in Australia (2011) PDF – This report is focused on the current status of Australian state and territory laws and policies addressing coastal climate change risks, particularly as they relate to settlements. This report highlights a number of areas where there are inconsistencies and a lack of a coordinated approach to the management of CCC risks across the jurisdictions. This report also highlights areas which may be considered for the development of a national approach.

Cities and Flooding – A Guide to Integrated Urban Flood Risk Management for the 21st Century (2012) PDF – This Guide provides comprehensive, forward-looking operational guidance on how to manage the risk of floods in a rapidly transforming urban environment and changeable climate. The Guide serves as a primer for decision and policy makers, technical specialists, central, regional and local government officials, and concerned stakeholders in the community sector, civil society and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

Webinar: Ahead of the Storm: Initiatives to enhance resilience to extreme weather in Toronto by David MacLeod, a Senior Environmental Specialist in the Toronto Environment Office.

A thumbnail description for why Tornadoes occur is a collision of two distinct atmospheric conditions: warm, moist air at ground level and a jet stream-driven body of cooler air above.

While tornadoes have not been a large concern for Canadian provinces, they are a ubiquitous phenomenon in Mid-Western states of the U.S. In 2011, 550 people in the U.S. and more than 150 in Joplin, Missouri, alone were killed by tornadoes. 2011 was the fourth deadliest year on record.

As reported by Oklahoma Governor Sam Brownback, people took the warnings this past weekend seriously. Normally, there is a short time frame for notices (2 hours for instance) whereas this time around there was two-day advance notice.

The article reports that forecasters issued their first warning on Friday, predicting a tornado outbreak that had the potential of being a “high-end, life-threatening event” for a swath of the Midwest. Using language such as ‘high end’ and ‘life-threatening’ was done to highlight the dangerous nature of these disasters which have delivered a large number of deaths in the past.

The National Weather Service also used a statement such as “this is a life-threatening situation. You could be killed if not underground or in a tornado shelter”. Evidently, this language has been effective in getting people to take more protective measures and ultimately minimize their exposure to the tornadoes.  The National Weather Service will continue to use this new language system for the next 6 months in states such as Kansas and Missouri to see whether its impact remains effective.

In addition to the use of new language, it appears people living in Midwestern states have become more aware of the risks surrounding tornadoes. Residents are increasingly using their cameras and video recorders to document these events. The article reports that part of the reason why this past weekend’s 99 storms were not as dangerous may be due to the fact that the Storm Prediction Center issued a dire warning days ahead of the storm.

Early warning systems are an important adaptation action in terms of giving people enough notice to prepare for an event. Adaptation scholar Stephané Hallegatte confirms this in his accessible 2009 paper titled Strategies to adapt to an uncertain climate change.

Early warning systems deserve more attention from governments faced with risks from natural disasters – whether flooding, tornadoes or earthquakes. As evidenced in the NY Times article, early warning systems can be immensely powerful. What is even more valuable about the article is the use of communication through the National Weather Service’s new ominous language. While this may seem like a trivial task, people may feel more inclined to adapt when the language and science is clearer to them.

We will continue to report on the importance of early warning systems and the rise of communication techniques being used in climate adaptation.

Written by ACT researcher Timothy Shah

Complementing the News Scan is the PICS Briefing Note Service. This service provides timely and concise analysis, as well as suggested policy action, on issues related broadly to BC climate change mitigation and adaptation.

This week’s Climate News Scan includes:

Research Theme I: The low carbon emissions economy

• Is natural gas better for the climate? It depends

Research Theme II: Sustainable communities

• American urban planners focus on building sustainable communities

Research Theme III: Resilient ecosystems

• Corals used to temperature swings are more likely to survive warming oceans

Research Theme IV: Social mobilization

• Climate change and health; a moral imperative

Research Theme V: Carbon management in BC forests

• Urban trees provide economic value

A Carbontalks’ Brown Bag Lunch Dialogue with Deborah Harford, Executive Director of the SFU Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) on April 10, 2012.

More articles on climate change can be found at blog.carbontalks.ca.

A news article in Science discusses how water scarcity and endangered species will keep growing unless politicians make “hard decisions” about priorities for water use in the California Bay Delta. The article summarises a report produced by the National Research Council. This Wikipedia article also provides a good overview of the water situation in California.

The central point for California’s water problems is the delta, the bottom of a watershed that drains 40% of California where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers converge east of San Francisco Bay. About 25 million people in California rely on the delta for their water supplies. With about 75% of its water located north of the delta and three-fourths of its demand coming from the south, California has to move water over vast distances and at a high cost. As Mike Taugher, Environmental Reporter for the Contra Costa Times states, “the delta is the switching yard where water is taken from the estuary and moved into canals, a process that also kills millions of fish a year and changes the hydrodynamics of the West Coast’s largest estuary.”

A report titled Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta published by the Public Policy Institute of California identifies several factors that pose significant threats to human use and ecological attributes in the Delta:

• Subsidence of the agricultural lands on the Delta islands
• Changing inflows of water to the Delta, which appear to increase flow variability and may skew flows more in the direction of earlier times in the water year in the future
• Sea level rise that has been occurring over the last 6,000 years and may accelerate in the future
• Earthquakes, which threaten the physical integrity of the entire Delta system

One committee member of the National Research Council panel named Henry J. Vaux Jr., professor emeritus of resource economics at the University of California, Riverside explains that “science is necessary to inform actions and proposals”. But at this state the science is relatively well developed. What is needed is societal and political considerations, which are “integral factors in determining the most appropriate policies toward managing the water resources in the delta and balancing the needs of all water users”.

Reflecting on California’s water troubles is instructive for British Columbia and Canada more broadly. BC is about to modernize its 1909 Water Act. It has proposed actions focused on water efficiency, groundwater monitoring and improving water governance arrangements.

While BC does not currently have the same layered complexity around water issues as California, it is valuable to pay close attention to the problems they have encountered, and the steps being taken to overcome them. Namely, how do you plan in a way that is inclusive and sensitive to multiple interests? How could governance arrangements accommodate this, especially to ensure that human and ecological water needs are more balanced?

Written by ACT researcher Timothy Shah

British Columbia Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative has released a new BC Agriculture Climate Change Adaptation Risk + Opportunity Series of reports. Themes cover adaptation risk & opportunity assessment, and regional snapshots for the Central Interior, Fraser Valley & Metro Vancouver, Okanagan Region, Peace Region and Vancouver Island.

The report library is available online.

The Climate Action Initiative is a joint undertaking of BC Agriculture Council and the Investment Agriculture Foundation with funding provided by Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada and the BC Ministry of Agriculture & Lands.

(Reuters) – A future on Earth of more extreme weather and rising seas will require better planning for natural disasters to save lives and limit deepening economic losses, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a major report on the effects of climate change.

The U.N. climate panel said all nations will be vulnerable to the expected increase in heat waves, more intense rains and floods and a probable rise in the intensity of droughts.

Aimed largely at policymakers, the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes clear nations need to act now, because increasingly extreme weather is already a trend.

Lindene Patton, chief climate product officer for Zurich Financial Services, said the report was particularly useful for insurers who rely on its scientific assessments “to assist our customers to live and work successfully in the natural world.”

Read the full article by David Fogarty and Deborah Zabarenko on reuters.com

The full report is available on the IPCC website